Cartridge for use in multiple injection device



I March 1970 w. 1.. amcksou ETAL 3 5 CARTRIDGE FOR USE IN MULTIPLE INJECTION DEVICE Filed "2137.17, 1967 I is 2 *:1 I6

23 n flif /25 l4 1 z B ,24- A I FlG.l

, FIGZ mmvrbns WILLIAM L. BRICKSON HENRY TAMAGNI ATTORNEY United States Patent US. Cl. 128272 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A prefilled liquid medicinal containing cartridge for use in a multidose injection device which comprises a glass walled cylinder having at its dispensing end an orifice of reduced diameter having a sealable pierceable closure means, said orifice being located in an axially oriented diapensing neck of reduced diameter by a lateral glass wall tapered at an angle of more than 75 and less than 90 from the interior surface of said cylinder, and at the other end an internal scalable plunger means frictionally slidably moveable towards said dispensing end causing said contained liquid medicine, upon the slidable movement of said plunger means, to be dispensed through a hypodermic needle which has pierced said closure means.

This invention relates generally to multiple dose syringes or dispensers and more particularly to multidose injection dispensers and cartridges and/or vials usefully employable therein. Even more particularly, this invention relates to multidose veterinary injection devices and cartridges employable therewith containing a liquid medicament composition for injection in measured dosages into a plurality of animals for veterinary purposes.

Under the present. economic conditions of domestic animal management, it has frequently been found desirable and necessary to parenterally administer accurate dosages of liquid medicaments to large numbers of domestic-animals, such as, cattle, hogs, sheep, fowl, etc., in a rapid and efficient manner, To accomplish this purpose, there have been developed certain multiple injection devices, such as are described in United States Patent 3,130,- 724. These devices are adapted to accept cartridges or vials containing a reservoir of liquid medicament, which may then be parenterally administered in successive individual doses to. a plurality of the domestic animals sought to be treated. In practice, it has been found that the cartridges and/or vials which have previously been employed for this purpose are not, for reasons which will be further discussed hereinafter, totally satisfactory for their intended purpose.

The major defect existant in the prior art cartridges has been found to be lack of accuracy in the individual dosages dispensed therefrom. For example, one type of cartridge widely employed in the practice of this art, involves a medicament filled cylindrical tube, having rubber stoppers at each end. One stopper is adapted to act as a plunger means while the other is adapted to accept a hypodermic needle through which the medicament is dispensed upon the other plunger stopper being advanced toward it. Although the first dosage units dispensed are usually accurate, as the bulk of the medicament is dispensed an inordinately high degree of back pressure is built up in the cylinder which results in small dosages of medicament being dispensed. In addition, as the last dosage unit is sought to be dispensed, contact of the plunger stopper is made with the hypodermic 3,498,295 Patented Mar. 3, 1970 ice needle, thereby effectively cutting off further dispensing of the contained medicament and resulting in wasted material and inadequate dispensing of the contained medicament.

Another type of multidose cartridge which has been employed in the injection devices here involved com prises a shouldered cylindrical cartridge having a frictionally slidable plunger means at'one end and a dispensing orifice of reduced size at the other, the shoulders of said cartridge tapered in a forward direction towards the dispensing orifice. Here too, the same problem of the inaccuracy of the last dosages of medicament is encountered. This is to a great degree caused by the sloping shoulders of the cylinder which may cause the plunger stopper, which is comprised of a resilient material, to bow in and thereby cause an inaccurate dosage level to be dispensed.

In addition to the foregoing, further inaccuracies are caused by the fact that most of the cartridges employed in the injection devices here employed are of a resilient construction, being formed from such pliable material as polyethylene and other like materials. As the plunger means is advanced to dispense the liquid medicament in these cartridges of resilient construction a high back pressure is built up, causing the resilient walls to bow outwardly and resulting in an inaccurate dosage being dispensed. These plastic materials have also been found to be unsatisfactory due to an inherent instability in the presence of the liquid medicinals here sought to be employed.

The foregoing and other disadvantages of the cartridges useful in the multiple injection devices heretofore employed for the purpose of this invention are overcome and obviated by the new and useful cartridge of the instant invention. It is an object of this invention to provide an improved multiple dosage liquid medicament containing cartridge adapted for use with a multiple dosage injection device for successive administration of individual dosages of medicaments to a plurality of domestic animals.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved multiple dosage cartridge for use in an injection device which will provide successively accurate individual dosages of medicament for parenteral administration to a plurality of domestic animals.

A still further object of this invention is the provision of an efficient method for accurately parenterally administering individual dosages of a medicament to a plurality of domestic animals.

Other objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of the multiple dosage cartridge of the instant invention;

FIGURE 2 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view taken along the line A-A of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a partial longitudinal sectional view of the cartridge of FIGURE 1 as employed and adapted for use with a multiple injection device.

In the drawing which is hereby referred to as a part of this specification, like reference characters indicate functionally corresponding parts in the several views insofar as practicable. Referring to the figures setting forth the preferred embodiment of the invention, by the characters of reference 25 represents the multidose cartridge. The cartridge 25 has a cylindrical body of thin rigid glass walls 10. In the practice of this invention it has been found that a rigid construction of glass is required to render the walls of the cartridge non-yielding even under the elevated pressures to which they are subjected during actual use, and for this purpose high strength, preferably clear, glass has been found to yield the best results.

The cartridge is designed for use with a multiple injection device having a barrel means 29 adapted to slidably receive the cartridge 25. The type of multiple injection device employable herein has a cap means 19 which may be removably mounted on the forward end of said barrel 29. Rigidly fixed in axial alignment on said cap is a hypodermic needle hub mounting 20 adapted to engage and hold securely a double ended cannula 28 formed with an inwardly or rearwardly extending relatively short closure piercing section 26 and an elongated outwardly or forwardly extending administration section 27 adapted to be inserted into the domestic animal to be treated.

The cartridge walls are radially connected at one end thereof to the base 14 of an axially oriented reduced diameter dispensing neck 11 by a lateral inwardly extending glass wall 13. This lateral inwardly extending wall 13 is tapered at an angle in excess of 75 to less than 90 represented by the character B, from the interior surface 24 of the cartridge body 25. This taper angle provides a peaked shoulder 23 and an inwardly extending lateral wall 13, the purpose and action of which will be more fully described hereinafter.

It has been found that the successful practice of this invention requires that the axially oriented dispensing neck 11 possess certain characteristics as to its length and breadth. Thus it has been determined that the length of the dispensing neck should be such as to more than adequately accommodate the hypodermic cannula 26 and should not be in excess of one-half inch. In addition, the internal diameter of the dispensing neck although of a reduced size from the cartridge cylinder should not be in excess of about one half the internal diameter of said cartridge cylinder. These characteristics have been found to be necessary for the successful practice of this invention.

The reduced diameter dispensing neck 11 has at its other end a ridge or flange means 16, adapted to accept a piercable diaphragm, such as a rubber end cap 15, which sealably closes the forward or dispensing end of the cartridge 25, and is sealably held against the flange 16, by a metal ferrule 12, which is crimped around the dispensing neck 11 and the flange 16. The ferrule 12 has an axial aperture through which the inner cannula section 26 passes to permit the piercing of the end cap 15.

The other end of the cartridge has sealably mounted therein a piston plunger 17 of a resilient material, for example rubber, which piston plunger 17 is adapted to be slidably engaged within the glass walled cylinder by means of sufficient pressure being exerted on the anterior surface of said plunger means 17 in a direction of said dispensing neck 11, when said cartridge 25 is operatively engaged within said dispensing device.

In actual operation, the sealed liquid medicinal prefilled cartridge 25 is slidably inserted into the injection device barrel 29. The amount of liquid medicinal which may be prefilled into said cartridge 25 will of course depend upon the size of the cartridge employed. In the practice of this invention, it has been found that successful results are obtained when more than 10 and less than 125' cc. of liquid medicinal is employed in said cartridge. After insertion of the cartridge 25 into the barrel 29, the cap 19, having a rigidly held hypodermic needle 28 possessing an inward piercing cannula section 26 and outward dispensing or administering section 27 mounted thereon, is operatively engaged with said barrel. This engagement results in the end cap 15 being pierced by said cannula 26. The piston 17 is simultaneously seated on a plunger means 21, which when actuated exerts pressure on the anterior surface of said piston 17, causing it to slidably advance in said cylinder towards the dispensing end thereof. This forward progress results in the contained liquid medicinal material being dispensed through the hypo dermic needle 28. The plunger means 21 may be advanced in preset increments to cause to be dispensed a succession of equal measured dosages, until the required number of dosages, i.e. the number of dosages for which the cartridge is designed, have been dispensed. Accuracy is assured even to the last dose by the arresting of further forward progress of the piston 17 by uniform contact thereby of the leading interior surface 22 of said lateral connecting wall 13 and just prior to the contact of said piston 17 with said cannula section 26.

Among the liquid medicinal materials which may be included liquid vitamin compositions, hormone compositions and other like materials.

From the foregoing it will be understood that the embodiments of the present invention described above are well suited to provide the advantages set forth, and since many possible embodiments may be made of the various features of this invention and as the apparatus herein described may be varied in various parts, all without departing from the scope of the invention, it is to be understood that all matter hereinbefore set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and that in certain instances some of the features may be used without a corresponding use of other features, all without departing from the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid medicinal containing cartridge for use in a multiple dosage injection device for the parenteral administration of individual dosages of said liquid medicinal to a plurality of domestic animals, which comprises a rigid, thin-Walled glass cylinder body having one end radially connecting with the base of an axially oriented dispensing neck of reduced diameter by a lateral glass wall tapered at an angle of more than and measurably less than from the interior surface of said cylinder body, and having means adapting a scalable pierceable watertight closure thereon capable of coming into operative contact with a hypodermic cannula rigidly mounted on said injection device and through which the contained liquid medicament is dispensed; and in the other end of said cylinder body a piston means adapted to be sealably frictionally slidable throughout the interior portion of said cylinder body with uniform progress towards the dispensing neck of said cartridge upon the application of pressure on the anterior surface of said piston means by a plunger actuating means of said injection device, in a manner to cause the contained liquid medicament to be dispensed through the said hypodermic cannula when the cartridge is in operative contact therewith, until the forward progress of said piston is arrested by contact of the forward surface of said piston with the interior surface of said tapered lateral connecting glass wall and before said piston is brought into contact with said hypodermic cannula.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,987,146 1/1935 Hein. 2,007,454 7/ 1935 May 128272 928,588 7/1909 Cornish 222249 XR FOREIGN PATENTS 691,650 7/ 1930 France.

RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner MARTIN F. MAJESTIC, Assistant Examiner 

